And bobebt jay shoemaker



UNITED STATES OFFICE.

HELON IB. MAGFARLAND, or oIIIcAeo, ILLINOIS, AND ROBERT JAY snoE'MAxEm'or TOPEKA, KANSAS, AssIGNo'as, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, or ONE-HALF.

I TO SAID MAOFABLAND AND ONE-HALF TO EGBERT H. GOLD, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 1

MATERIAL FOR INSUDATING AND LIKE PURPOSES AND 'METHOD OI MANUFACTURING SAME.

1,252,468. I Specification 01 Letters Patent.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HELON B. MAoF-An- LAND and ROBERT J. SHOEMAKER, citizens of the United States, residing at Chicago, 111' the count .ofCook and State of Illinois,

and Tope a, in the county of Shawnee. and

certain new and useful Improvements Lin Materials for Insulating and like Purposes and Methods of Manufacturing Same', of

which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to the production of a material of a somewhat feltlike character suitable for use, .for example, in railway cars, buildings or other structures for the purpose of heat insulation, the deadening of sound, or for other like purposes.

The object of the invention is to provide a material of this type which will be homo- -geneous in its character, relatively tough ut flexible, and capable of being produced at a low co 2 The material consists of fibers of one sort or another, vegetable or animal, or mineral substances of a general fibrous character such as asbestos and v mineral' wool, mixed' with a filler and binder consisting of a cellulose pulp. The pulp is preferably derived from the marine plant known as eel grass, this plant being obtainable in large quan-' tities at-very slight cost. We may also use the same plant to give the fibrous constituent Lof the product, and a material-very satisfactory in some respects and for some purposes is obtainable in this way; but where certain qualities are required we may use, in place of the raw eel grass fibers, or in combination with them, animalhair, asbestos, or other fibrous material, vegetable, animal, or minera].

The manufacture of the product, according to our preferred method, is as follows:

The eel grass is cooked with an, alkali, preferably with a dilute solution of caustic soda, eitherunder steam pressureor in an'open vessel. The length of-time 'that'the material is cooked a-n'd'the amount of alkali.

used depends" upon the condition, of the raw material, the grass when dry requiring more treatment thanthe freshly cut mate,- rial. The cookin with the alkali is carried on until the woo y portion of the eel grass .is softened and resinous and,

, Patented Jams, 191s. Application filed A ril 11,1917. Serial No. 161,137.

nitrogeneous constituents of the'plant loo'senedfrom the fibers.

The material thus treated is then washed 'and the fibrous'constituent is beaten to a State of Kansas, respectively, have invented, f'with fibrous material of any desired kind.

For example, a material having useful properties may be made by mixing together fift per cent, by weight, of raw ee'l grass wit above described. The physical qualities of the material may be varied by varying these proportions. For example, f a more rigid and dense material is desired the report-1011 of the pulp will be increased. K hus it is possible to make a material containing a pr oximately eighty per cent. of the pu p and twenty per cent. of the raw grass. f

The mixing'is preferably accomplished by introducing the fibrous matter into the beater in which the alkali treated material has. been pulped. After the fibrous material and the pulp have been thoroughly,

' .mixed the material is drained to remove excess of water, pressed or rolled into boards or sheets of any desired shapeand size, and subsequently dried. 1

Instead of using eel grass for the fibrous constituent of the product we may employ animal hair which, when mixed with the pulp and manufactured into sheets or boards, gives a product which has great pliability.

of resisting fire it is possible to use mineral wool or asbestos as the fibrous constituent or as a part thereof.

We claim: 1. A product for insulation or like pur- In order to make. the product more capable poses, in the form of a flexible board composed of material of a fibrous nature intimately mixed with a filler and a binder consistini'of pulped cellulose.

2. 'product for insulation or like purposes, in the form of a flexible board composed of material of a fibrous nature intimately mixed with a filler, and a binder consisting of p-ulped eel grass fibers.

3. A product for insulation or like pur- Zposes'in-the .form of a flexibleboard composed of material of a fibrous na ure intimately mixed with a filler, and-a binder consisting of'pulped grass from which the non-fibrous constituents of the plant have been removed.

'4. A product for insulation or like purposes, in the form of a flexible board composed of material of a fibrous nature intimately mixed with a filler, and a binder consisting of eel grass cooked and beaten'to a.

5. A product for insulation or like purposes, in the form of a flexible board composed of eel grass fibers mixed with a filler and a binder consisting of pulped cellulose.-

a filler and a binder consisting of pulped cellulose. 8. A product for insulation, or like pureel grass poses, in the form of a flexible board comprising animal hair intin ately'mixed with a filler, and a binder consisting of pulped eel grassfibers.

i 9, A product for insulation, or like purposes, in the form of a flexible board comprising material of a fibrous character mixed with pulped eel grass fibers.

10. A product for insulation, or like purposes, comprising eel grass fibers mixed with the pulped fibers of the same plant.

11. The method of manufacturing a product of the character described which consists in forming a pulp of eel grass fibers, and intimately mixing therewith raw eel grass.

12. The method of manufacturing a product of the character described which consists in cooking eel grass fibers with an alkali, pulping the fibers by beating, and mixing raw eel grass with the pulp thus formed.

HELDN B. MAGFARLAND. ROBERT JAY SHOEMAKER. 

